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 University of Groningen

In Defense of Common Sense. Lorenzo Valla’s Humanist Critique of Scholastic Philosophy
Nauta, Lodi

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Publication date:
2009

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Citation for published version (APA):
Nauta, L. (2009). In Defense of Common Sense. Lorenzo Valla’s Humanist Critique of Scholastic
Philosophy. Harvard University Press. http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?recid=29432

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In Defense
of Common
Sense

l o d i n a u ta

l o d i n a u ta is Professor of Medieval and
Renaissance Philosophy, University of Gronin-
gen, the Netherlands.

I Tatti Studies in Italian Renaissance History

harvard university press

Cambridge, Massachusetts

London, England

www.hup.harvard.edu

Jacket art: Colantonia, Saint Gerome in his study with the

lion. ©Scala/Ministero per i Beni e le Attività culturali /

Art Resource, NY.

“This is by far the best book in any language on Valla as a philoso-
pher. It will immediately take its place on graduate reading lists
and in courses on Renaissance humanism and philosophy, and
bring Valla into the narrative of Western philosophical history as
no book has previously succeeded in doing.”

—james hankins,
harvard university

“Tremendously impressive. This is a welcome development in
scholarship on Valla. Nauta has written a book that will be con-
sulted for a long time to come.”

—christopher celenza,
johns hopkins university

One of the leading humanists of Quattro-
cento Italy, Lorenzo Valla (ca. 1406–1457) has
been widely praised as a brilliant and successful
debunker of medieval scholastic philosophy.
Transcending the disciplinary boundaries that
still divide the study of humanism from that of
medieval philosophy, Lodi Nauta seeks a more
balanced assessment, presenting us with the first
comprehensive study of the humanist’s attempt
at radical reform of Aristotelian scholasticism.

This study first examines Valla’s attack on
major tenets of Aristotelian metaphysics, show-
ing how Valla employed common sense and lin-
guistic usage as his guides. Next, it explicates
Valla’s critique of Aristotelian psychology and
natural philosophy and discusses his moral and
religious views, including Valla’s notorious iden-
tification of Christian beatitude with Epicurean
pleasure and his daring views on the Trinity. Fi-
nally, it takes up Valla’s humanist dialectic,
which rejects the formal approach of the
scholastics and seeks to transform logic into a
practical tool in which persuasiveness and ef-
fectiveness are the prime parameters.

Nauta’s work firmly places Valla’s arguments
and ideas within the contexts of ancient and
medieval philosophical traditions as well as re-
newed interest in ancient rhetoric in the Ren-
aissance. It also amply demonstrates the
philosophical relevance of Valla’s conviction
that, because language is the key to thinking
and writing, the philosophical problems of the
scholastics are rooted in a misunderstanding of
language. Combining philosophical exegesis
and historical scholarship, this book offers a
new approach to a major Renaissance thinker.

In Defense

of Common

Sense

Lorenzo Valla’s

Humanist Critique

of Scholastic

Philosophy

n a u ta